American diplomat suggests all Jewish settlers are terrorists

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 |
Israel Today Staff

The head of security at the American Consulate in Jerusalem recently suggested in a conversation with Israeli security officials that all Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria (settlers) are potentially murderous assassins, reported Israel's Ynet news portal.

In a meeting with Israel Police Deputy Inspector General Meir Ben-Yishai the regional security officer at the American Consulate in Jerusalem, Tim Laas, rebuked a request that American consular vehicle be more cooperative at Israeli security checkpoints.

According to Ynet, Laas said: "I don't want your security officers to check our cars. What if there are settlers among them? I will not have my people end up like (slain Prime Minister Yitzhak) Rabin."

Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli sympathetic to the growth of Jewish communities in areas claimed by the Arabs.

The meeting between Laas and Ben-Yishai came shortly after an incident at the Gilboa crossing in the northern "West Bank" in November, when a convoy of US diplomatic vehicles refused requests by Israeli security officials to provide identification or allow inspection of the vehicles.

The confrontation nearly turned deadly when one of the Palestinian drivers in the American convoy lunged his vehicle at an Israeli border guard.

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